Some oil and gas production rigs employ an artificial lift electrical submersible pump (ESP) to increase pressure within a reservoir to thereby encourage oil to the surface. When the natural drive energy of the reservoir is not sufficient to push the oil to the surface, artificial lift is employed to recover more production. If an ESP fails during operation, the ESP must be removed from the pumping environment and replaced or repaired, either of which results in a significant cost to an operator.
In various applications, sensors or other detectors are used to monitor aspects of the pumping system, for example to detect or predict pumping system failure, or to provide surveillance engineers with a richer observable dataset upon which to make decisions regarding pumping system operation. In some cases, a base gauge may serve as a “hub” between surface monitoring equipment and one or more remote sensors positioned along the ESP string. However, the downhole environment is space constrained with respect to the ability to provide connectors to more than a small number of remote sensors. Further, the base gauge is often incapable of providing sufficient power for more than a small number of remote sensors.